User blog:NebulousViper/Well, here goes
Update1: Mei Hua's Mandarin voicebank has been reviewed! Re-recording samples that need fixing. Also, the Mandarin voicebank will now be voice acted to match the Japanese vocal (the reviewer said the voice acted samples sounded rather sweet and did like it, but liked the natural sound because it was soft. I decided to try to make it voice acted instead). ---- I've been mentioning this a few times on the wiki from time to time, so I think it's okay if I share this now. No, this is not about Chinese VOCALOIDs. Pft. Okay so... you may have noticed I've been talking about recording and what not. And I might have mentioned the language. I don't remember but here goes. I'm recording an UTAU. For real. It's a female UTAU, of course. She is partly voice acted. Her name is Mei Hua (梅花). And as you can probably tell, she is Chinese. This is the core feature of the vocal. A Northeastern American accented Chinese UTAU. She will also have a Japanese voicebank. She is actually based on an old OC, originally owned by Amai-kitten on deviantART, but I adopted her after the original owner didn't want her anymore. Back then, she was known as Ume Kenoia. No, I did not design or name her, but this was her. She was supposed to keep the name of "UmE" for the Japanese vocal, but I decided it's just too much hassle and scrapped the name. She will also be gaining a redesign of course, but I won't reveal what she looks like. She will be designed by our wonderful editor Purpled~ With this in mind, UmE is pretty much no more, as usually if you change the name and design, they're not the same anymore I guess. You can still call her "Ume" if you want, I don't mind if you do. Her Japanese vocal is pretty much done now and we're still working on the Chinese voicebank. Japanese is simply a lot easier to work with in comparison to the other. When I said partly voice acted earlier, it's because of this. I recorded the Japanese vocal first and voice acted her. I pitched my voice higher than my usual voice. That was easy. But recording Chinese in the same voice was not because I was mostly concerned on pronouncing things accurately, so I stuck with my natural voice instead, which is probably for the best. She will sound different in both languages. I have always been fond of the name "Mei" or "May". And "Hua" is flower in Chinese, for the most part. Personally, I've been named after a flower myself, so... yeah. And I find that "Mei Hua" (梅花) is a plum blossom or plum flower. It's in a tree and they're very pretty. "Mei" is plum. I love plums. It's my favorite fruit. "Ume", if I was told correctly, is "plum". IT WORKS OUT I GUESS. I can say this much, and I would like feedback, see what I need to keep or cut. Keep in mind that I was trying to incorporate Ume's original personality into this as well. "Gender: Female Age: 15 years old Height: 5’3” Weight: 108 lbs Likes: Plums, flowers, cats, reading, sweets, big fluffy dogs, ribbons and bows, soft flannel shirts, smoothies Dislikes: Ghosts, scary stories, the dark, airplanes, the beach, getting fat, bugs, boats, sharks Mei Hua is a young female with a shy personality at first impression. After getting to know others, she tends to become cheerful and somewhat hyper. Self-expression is very important to her and she tries to find ways to be positive. She often thinks of others rather than herself, even if it means giving up something she cares about to benefit another person. She is very sensitive to negative comments or jokes and may take it to heart, even if it is not much of a big deal. However, sometimes people find her difficult to approach. Considering how she has red or pink eyes, she’s often mistaken as some sort of demon or bad omen." I don't have samples on me right now. But it's just a quick intro on what I'm up to. :P Category:Blog posts